A Chinese car company that wants to become the world leader in driverless technology has dispatched two cars to drive themselves 1,100 miles across China.
The Changan Raetons set off yesterday from the carmakers' base in Chongqing, southwest China, for Beijing, a trip that will take five days of motorway driving. Sitting in the back of the silver sedans were Changan's president and a Chongqing vice-mayor — but there was no one behind the wheel. One Changan employee sits in the front passenger seat for whenever driver intervention is required.
The move by one of China's largest carmakers highlights the country's determination to overtake the United States and claim the global lead in “autonomous” or driverless vehicles and technology, a booming field contested by Google, Tesla and others.
“Google's artificial intelligence technologies are great but still far away from commercialisation,” Kong Zhouwei, a Changan test-driver and engineer, said. “The speed of Google's driverless car is only 50 miles per hour, not as fast as ours,” he added of the company's Beijing-bound prototype, which can reach 75mph.
The state-owned company, the name of which means lasting safety, has pledged to increase its research and development team to 1,000 people by 2020, with an accumulated investment of more than £500 million.
The Chinese internet search giant Baidu has poured billions of yuan into its quest to dominate the new sector. Baidu plans mass production of driverless cars within five years and will soon test self-driving cars in the US after limited trials in Chinese cities. Volvo, which is Chinese owned, plans to test 100 self-driving cars in China this year.
Baidu claims to have realised full self-driving automation during its road tests on Beijing's streets and ring roads in December last year, with a maximum speed of 62mph. Changan's cross-country trip, including a stop at the Terracotta Army's home city of Xi'an, marks China's first long-distance driverless journey.
The Changan sedans are programmed to handle most manoeuvres and traffic conditions but still require driver input for requesting lane changes and overtaking. By the end of 2018 “we will realise some mass production of high-level self-driving cars”, Tan Benhong, a Changan researcher, said. “What people see now on the test cars basically will all appear on the mass-produced cars.”
Many Chinese drivers and passengers, keen on robots and artificial intelligence and frustrated by their traffic-clogged commutes, appear more than ready to embrace driverless technology.
Li Yusheng, Changan's engineering chief, said that the drive across China would help the company to test the car in a variety of conditions.
“The vehicles have performed well in uncomplicated road conditions, such as urban driveways and highways, but they still need the help of a driver to navigate them in places like gas stations and toll booths,” he said.
Audi Self Drive Cars in Shanghai
IT IS a courageous foreigner who drives on China’s roads. A combination of tens of millions of inexperienced drivers and a general disregard for traffic rules makes them among the world’s deadliest. Braver still would be the car manufacturer that dares to put a car loaded with automated-driving features on such roads. Western notions of what is a safe distance between cars mean little in China. How could an autonomous vehicle conceived for orderly Germanic roads cope with such anarchy?
Nevertheless Audi was this week giving journalists demonstrations of hands-off motoring through the frantic Shanghai streets. Its test cars were in town for a giant consumer-electronics fair, where it announced deals with Baidu, China’s biggest search-engine and mapping firm, and Huawei, a telecoms-equipment manufacturer, to kit out its connected cars of the future.
The German firm’s faith in China’s digital boom may be well placed, if this week’s convention is a guide. This is the first year that a version of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which is held every year with much fanfare in Las Vegas, has been held outside America. Hitherto, trends in consumer gadgetry have typically taken off in America first, followed by the rest of the rich world, and then in emerging markets like China. That may be changing.
Size is one reason. America’s Consumer Electronics Association, which stages the CES, forecasts that the Chinese market for electronic goods will grow by 5% to $281 billion this year, and at current growth rates will overtake America’s next year. A big market gives firms added incentive to try out new devices there early.
But there are other reasons besides size to expect the Chinese consumer increasingly to be the trend-setter, rather than the trend-follower, in electronics. First, take autonomous and “connected” cars. The average Audi buyer in America or Europe is in his 50s, but in China he is a digitally-addicted 36-year-old. So models with such advanced options are likely to become widespread in China first. Fully driverless cars, in particular, may take off quicker than in litigious America or risk-averse Europe.
Second, the Chinese have taken to mobile commerce with gusto. Apple is reported to be in talks with Alibaba, a local e-commerce firm, to bring its mobile payment system to the Middle Kingdom. Consumers who have quickly got used to shopping on mobile devices also seem likely to be enthusiastic adopters of smart watches and other wearable devices.